BEER! BEER! BEER! BEER! BEER! BEER! BEER! BEER!

[bennyboy]

Here in Sacramento it is BEER WEEK. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/26/618...ns-a-head.html

Coming two weeks after SF's enormous BEER WEEK. Huge events, so many breweries in the area......

Craft brewing is taking off like crazy now. New local breweries are popping up all over, serving mostly the neighborhood. the breweries and tap houses are now the gathering places for the neighborhoods, with kids dogs and activities at the place all the time. People line up to fill growlers and now with the law change, it is happening more than ever..

Most of the festivals have gone totally to craft brewers (HIGH SIERRA!) and even the ones that have corporate beer have craft brewing as feature (Outside Lands) as well. And the lines there are so long it is not funny....



Even in my little town, Nevada City/Grass Valley there will be five operating breweries by the end of the year. (now one)

In a city the size of NOLA you could easily have 20 breweries or more, all making incredible beers, all different, all serving the neighborhoods etc and doing what we are doing in California.......

[Kemp]

You know how to create an attention grabbing headline.

[completejohn]

Oh, great. Now I gotta Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee

[bennyboy]

You know how to create an attention grabbing headline.

Too bad I can't post a pic in the title line or we'd be seeing Kate Upton too....

technique learned from the beer companies.

[swag]

[Jordan]

I really miss that band

[Lit]

YYR, it's another renaissance in the micro-brew/craft beer world. First one was early 90s, which boomed for a while, then fell off with the competitive shake out that saw several breweries and brewpubs close, and several others acquired in whole or in part by the majors (e.g., Red Hook, Goose Island, Mendocino, Widmer, Pyramid, Magic Hat, Boulevard and most recently Blue Point).

The advancement in brewing technology now has many craft beers being brewed in different parts of the country rather than shipping it across, and many local/regional brewers have greatly improved their equipment in the process, allowing them to make better, fresher beers and deliver them less expensively. Finally. It's been nice to see the prices come down a bit and the quality go up.

It will be interesting to see how long this next phase lasts. I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet, but rest assured the majors have taken note and are trying the get more and more into that market. Even Sam Adams, which is about as major as the craft brewers get, was fighting irrelevance for its signature beers as West Coast IPAs started to eat up the market, so Sam Adams recently introduced its own "West Coast-style" IPA with Rebel IPA, which is apparently going after Lagunitas accounts, as Lagunitas has made huge headway--to the point where you now see it in chain restaurants, etc.

Here in CT a local brewery, Two Roads, started up a year ago with $16M in hedge fund money and a business plan to brew a few of its own beers and use the rest of its brewing days as a contract brewer for other craft beers from across the country to brew their beer and have it distributed here. Within just one year they have not only achieved incredible market penetration for their own beers, but they are apparently at full capacity for all of their brewing days, between their own products and those they are brewing for others. And the place is incredible. I've toured dozens of breweries and brewpubs across the country (and in other countries as well) and this is one of the most advanced and impressive facilities I've ever seen.

These are definitely very good times for good beer.

[barrymojo]

I really miss that band

I miss them too Swag...Spanks a lot for the vid (and the chorus has just the right number of beers to match Benny's title!)..which also.brings back the memory of the chant "B Double E Double R UN! Beer Run, Beer Run, Beer Run.!!!.. ....

[ohio]

I miss them too Swag...Spanks a lot for the vid (and the chorus has just the right number of beers to match Benny's title!)..which also.brings back the memory of the chant "B Double E Double R UN! Beer Run, Beer Run, Beer Run.!!!.. ....

I miss them both...

[MormonMatthew]

Wish more of the local/regional microbreweries would attempt some of the lighter styles (pilsner, lager, altbier, kolsch) instead of constantly focusing on heavy, filling ales.

I know everyone loves a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or an Abita Amber (myself included) but after 2 or 3 of them in the hot sun, I feel like I have eaten a 6 course meal....

[Lit]

Wish more of the local/regional microbreweries would attempt some of the lighter styles (pilsner, lager, altbier, kolsch) instead of constantly focusing on heavy, filling ales.

I know everyone loves a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or an Abita Amber (myself included) but after 2 or 3 of them in the hot sun, I feel like I have eaten a 6 course meal....

There has been a huge focus on lower-alcohol, less-filling "session beers" in the last year, and it continues. Most of them are ales, as IPAs remain the most popular segment in the craft beer industry, but they are much lighter than the big, boozy IPAs, double IPAs, imperial IPAs and black IPAs that were very popular the past few years prior. Check out Founder's All Day IPA and Lagunitas DayTime IPA as some widely-available brands, but most of the locals/regionals are now getting into it, too.

Sierra Nevada's Summerfest Lager (available in cans) should be right up your alley, as should Oskar Blues Mama's Little Yella Pils, also in cans. Full Sail has a Session Lager and Session Dark Lager that are both in that same realm. The local brewery I mentioned above, Two Roads, focuses mostly on pilsners, saisons and the like--again, also in cans. I am sure that there are beers like you describe widely available all over the country.

[Amy Winette]

I also prefer a lighter beer Matthew. Our current local fave is the Snow King 75th Anni pale ale by Snake River Brewery in Jackson

[groovy1967]

Matthew, if you ever have the opportunity, you should try a Victory Prima Pils. It's rather light and quite drinkable on a warm day.

Out of curiosity, have you ever given hefeweizens or other wheat beers a try?

[Gards]

We have a variety of small brewries here, but they are mainly too bloody expensive, or come in the little bottles.

They make some good stuff though with names like Little Creatures and Mattilda Bay etc, at the forefront.

Coopers are still stand alone and now have very good distribution and have a more varied range.

Everthing else I am forced to shie away from due to price, our grog is heavily taxed and the best price you can get for

a slab of VB cans is about 38 bucks.

I am going down the road to a local bayside music festival this weekend, that has some very good bands playing for only $2.00

a day, but it is no BYO and they have advertised it as having craft beers avilable, I await with some degree of trepidation to see

the grog prices when I get there Saturday lunchtime

[bennyboy]

There is a guy in Auburn CA that makes 150 different kinds of beer.

YEP in 214 I think we will see the "session beer" capture a huge part of the market. I think the CA brewers are about over the over hopped thing and making sours (YEACH) and sessions.

The Lagunitas session beer, DAYTIME, is AMAZING. One of the best beers I ever drank. Full of flavor but perfectly balanced.

With Lagunitas and Sierra both opening breweries on the east Coast, you all are about to get a lot of great beers that you don't now from both breweries. Sierra does so many releases now you can possibly keep up with them all. All styles. Some overly hopped (Torpedo) some not. I love Old Chico, another great daytime beer. Tumbler is (was?) amazing, one of my favorite seasonals. More malty than hoppy brown.

And Lagunitas? Wow great brewery. Their seasonals are always incredible. I love "Little Sumpin", even though it is kind of hoppy, the wheat aspect of the beer mellows it out for me. LS Wild is that plus huge hops. The PILS is perfect for that person who wants a summertime drinkable beer with robust flavor.

I think that people can't just switch from a Coors light and move to Sierra Pale, they need to work their way in and get to understand flavor and how the different ingredients work in beer.. At my bar, you can tell the newbs... "What do you have that is light".. And of course they are accommodated. But with a similar style as the corporate beers but brewed locally. 6 months later they will be standing in line for Pliny The Younger at Russian River. (which is a HUGE event here in NORCAL and we have a keg at Sam Horne's on Beer Week Sunday Hop Rodeo!)

The best thing about the CA micros (Maxcros???) expanding is that one: they decided to not sell out.

They will start to be at every festival. Both brewers work in concert here, and with other brewers, to bring beers to festivals. Lots of handles. No corporate beers. They do sponsorships like the big guys do....... And let me tell ya, when you are at High sierra and you can walk over to the booth, pay five bucks and an icy pint of any of ten incredible beers for five bucks.. well that's living right there.